A hot flash is characterized by a sudden, intense, hot feeling on the face and upper body, perhaps preceded or accompanied by a rapid heartbeat and sweating, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, headache, weakness, or a feeling of suffocation. Some women experience an “aura,” an uneasy feeling just before the hot flash, that lets them know what's coming.
The flash is followed by a flush, leaving one reddened and perspiring. The intensity of the flash determines whether the individual becomes soaked in perspiration or merely suffers a moist upper lip. A chill can lead off the episode or be the finale. When hot flashes occur during the night, they can cause sleeplessness (insomnia), resulting in poor concentration, memory problems, irritability and exhaustion during the day.
Researchers do not know exactly what causes hot flashes. Current theories suggest hot flashes are due to a menopause-related drop in the body's level of female hormones called estrogens. This drop affects the hypothalamus, an area of the brain that regulates body temperature. In a hot flash, the hypothalamus seems to sense that the body is too hot even when it is not, and tells the body to release the excess heat. The heart pumps faster, the blood vessels in the skin dilate, particularly those near the skin of the head, face, neck and chest, to circulate more blood to radiate off the heat, and the sweat glands release sweat to cool the body off even more. Once the blood vessels return to normal size, the person feels cool again.
This heat-releasing mechanism is how the body keeps from overheating in the summer, but when a drop in estrogen triggers the process instead, the brain's confused response can make a person very uncomfortable. Some women's skin temperature can rise six degrees Centigrade during a hot flash. The body cools down when it shouldn't, and the person is miserable: soaking wet in the middle of a board meeting or in the middle of a good night's sleep.
Hot flashes affect about 85% of women during the years immediately before and after menopause. Menopause usually occurs around age 51, but hot flashes can begin as early as 2 to 3 years before the last menstrual period. Hot flashes can last for 6 months to as long as 15 years after the final period. The average is two years. Some women have only a few episodes a year, while others have as many as 20 episodes a day.
There is considerable variation in time of onset, duration, frequency, and the nature of hot flashes, whether an individual has had breast cancer or not. An episode can last a few seconds or a few minutes, occasionally even an hour, but it can take another half hour for someone to feel them self again. The most common time of onset is between six and eight in the morning, and between six to ten at night.
Hot flashes occur in women who experience natural menopause, as well as in women who undergo menopause because their ovaries have been removed surgically or because they take medications that lower estrogen levels. These medications include gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, such as leuprolide (Lupron) or danazol (Danocrine) that lower estrogen levels. Women that have had breast cancer have hot flashes that can follow the same pattern as for women in general, or they can be more intense and last longer, particularly if menopause was premature, or if you are taking tamoxifen and your body hasn't adjusted to it.
Although hot flashes usually are considered a female problem, men can have hot flashes if their levels of the male sex hormone testosterone drop suddenly and dramatically. For example, hot flashes occur in 75% of men with prostate cancer who have surgery to remove the testes (orchiectomy) or who take medication to decrease testosterone levels.
In addition, symptoms that mimic hot flashes can occur in both men and women who have a tumor of the hypothalamus or pituitary gland, certain serious infections such as tuberculosis or HIV, alcoholism or thyroid disorders. Symptoms that are similar to hot flashes also can be a side effect of the food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG), or of certain medications, particularly nitroglycerin (sold under many brand names), nifedipine (Procardia, Adalat), niacin (numerous brand names), vancomycin (Vancocin) and calcitonin (Calcimar, Cibacalcin, Miacalcin).
Currently, Hormone Replacement Therapy (“HRT”), or the taking of estrogen alone or in combination with progesterone or other hormones, is believed to be one of the most effective treatments available to reduce the onset of hot flashes. These hormones can be taken as a pill, injected, administered through a skin patch and or applied in a cream. For example, for women who have undergone surgical menopause and have unusually severe hot flashes, some studies have shown that a combination of estrogen and androgen may be effective. Alternative medications to help decrease the intensity of hot flashes include clonidine (Catapres), lofexidine (Britlofex), methyldopa (Aldomet), or antidepressants such as venlafaxine (Effexor), paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft).
In addition to HRT and other medications, several nonprescription dietary supplements or herbal remedies are promoted as natural ways to prevent or treat hot flashes. Several studies in humans suggest that black cohosh, red clover and soy may be safe and effective for improving symptoms of menopause. There are several other known suggested hot flash remedies such as changing one's wardrobe, becoming physically active, reducing intake of triggering foods and beverages and relaxation that are aimed at preventing or reducing the number of hot flashes experienced.
Certain drawbacks exist with current treatments for hot flashes. Because of potential side effects and dangers of hormone therapy, as outlined in several medical studies, many women choose not to use HRT in any form. Also, because other medications or dietary supplements are often ineffective or can cause undesired effects, many women choose to forgo these treatments as well.
Even when effective, however, the above-mentioned remedies are geared at reducing the onset of a hot flash rather than treating the symptoms or relieving the discomfort of an ongoing hot flash. Therefore, when a hot flash occurs, these treatments do little if anything to reduce the intense hot feeling on the face and upper body, rapid heartbeat, sweating, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, headache, weakness or a feeling of suffocation.
Presently there are no known hot flash treatments that include a topical solution for the safe, simple and immediate treatment of hot flash symptoms. Accordingly, a need exists for such a remedy.